High flight: How Harper, cabinet use the Challenger jet

New records of taxpayer-funded trips on the Challenger show Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Gov. Gen. David Johnston have spent close to $4 million combined travelling on the jets over the last three years.

Federal cabinet minister Joe Oliver and three officials spent approximately $52,000 to take a taxpayer-funded government VIP Challenger jet to Paris for less than two days, government flight manifests show.

Former finance minister Jim Flaherty and a handful of officials spent more than $65,000 taking a Challenger jet on two separate short business trips to Mexico City, another major city with plenty of flight options, the records show.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and two of his officials used a Challenger jet while in Africa for international meetings (although they travelled to Africa on commercial aircraft), while fellow cabinet ministers Peter MacKay and Leona Aglukkaq have also hopped aboard the Challengers for trips that cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars.

Details of the taxpayer-funded trips on the Challenger jets are found in documents recently tabled in the House of Commons. The documents also show Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Gov. Gen. David Johnston have spent close to $4 million combined, travelling on the jets more than 100 times each during the last three years.

Harper took a Challenger jet on 113 trips between April 2011 and February 2014, at a cost of approximately $1.8 million, according to the flight manifests. There’s no breakdown of where he travelled, although most of the trips would have been in Canada.

(Millions of dollars more are spent each year on Harper’s foreign travel for state visits and international summits. For those trips, he flies aboard the larger military Airbus CC-150 Polaris).

The Governor General took 109 trips aboard a Challenger jet between April 2011 and February 2014, at a cost of $2 million.

The Royal Canadian Air Force’s VIP Challenger jets seat nine passengers and cost more than $3,300 an hour to operate. They are used to shuttle around the Governor General, prime minister, cabinet ministers and other dignitaries. The RCMP has determined that, for security reasons, the prime minister and Governor General should not fly on commercial aircraft.

The Conservative government has come under fire recently for its use of the Challengers. In that instance, political opponents said Harper and his government were abusing taxpayer dollars by using the jets for Conservative party business but only repaying a fraction of the cost.

The federal government currently owns six Challenger jets, according to the Air Force’s website, although the Conservatives have been considering getting rid of up to four of the six VIP jets because the aircraft spend more time flying empty – so pilots can keep up their flying skills – than shuttling around ministers and dignitaries.

Copies of the Challenger flight manifests show cabinet ministers appear to have cut down the use of them in the past few years. There were just 10 ministerial trips between April 2011 and February 2014, according to the flight manifests. The Conservative government maintains it has reduced the use of the Challengers by 75 per cent compared to the previous Liberal government, although it’s difficult to verify those numbers.

“We have reduced the travel costs of all ministers using commercial and government aircraft by over 23 per cent since forming government,” Jason MacDonald, the prime minister’s director of communications, said in an email.

“And we have reduced the cost of ministerial travel on government aircraft by nearly 75 per cent, compared to when the Liberals held office.”

A spokeswoman for Oliver said the minister needed to take a Challenger jet to Paris because he had an important cabinet meeting in Ottawa immediately beforehand, but also had a longstanding commitment to speak at the International Energy Agency and attend bilateral meetings.

There were no commercial flights that allowed him to fulfil both commitments, so he used a government aircraft, said Melissa Lantsman, Oliver’s director of communications in Finance.

“This trip followed all guidelines on the use of Challengers for government business,” she said.

— In October 2011, shortly after taking a seat in the federal cabinet, then-natural resources minister Joe Oliver and three aides took a Challenger jet to Paris for less than 48 hours, at a cost of $51,903. Oliver is now the federal finance minister in charge of balancing the books by 2015.

The manifests show Oliver and his officials left Oct. 19 and returned the next day, with the itinerary listed as Ottawa, Paris, Gander, Ottawa.

During his trip, Oliver promoted “Canada’s international energy interests” including meeting with some of his counterparts in Paris and travelling to England to deliver a speech to the London School of Economics, as well as meeting with members of the British government.

— Former finance minister Jim Flaherty also used the Challenger jets a couple of times to travel to another major international capital, costing tens of thousands of dollars each time.

In December 2011, Flaherty and six officials took the Challenger to Mexico City from Ottawa for a meeting with the Mexican president and other government officials to discuss G20 priorities. They returned the day after, the trip having cost $33,179.

About two months later, in February 2012, Flaherty and six officials took the Challenger back to Mexico City for two nights and three days for a meeting of G20 finance ministers, at a cost of $32,193.

Flaherty and a couple of officials also took a Challenger in November 2013 for a same-day trip from Ottawa to St. Catharines and Toronto, and back to Ottawa, at a cost of $7,818, according to the manifests.

— Peter MacKay also took the Challenger jet a couple of times during his tenure as defence minister, including one apparent overnight trip in August 2011 that cost $17,411 for 5.3 hours of flying, in which the flight manifest lists the itinerary as “Ottawa, Ottawa, Ottawa.”

He took a Challenger jet in September 2011 with four other people, including former minister Peter Penashue and his wife, for a same-day trip from Ottawa to Halifax and Goose Bay, and then back to Ottawa, at a cost of $17,082, according to the flight manifests. The reason for travel listed was “departmental business.”

— Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird used a Challenger jet while in Africa in December 2012 with two government officials. Baird and his officials flew commercial aircraft to Africa, where they attended a Friends of the Syrian People Meeting in Marrakech, Morocco. They then hopped aboard a Challenger jet in Morocco and took it to a G8 Broader Middle East and North Africa meeting that started later that day in Tunis, Tunisia. The government says there was no other way to attend both meetings without the use of a Challenger. Baird then flew commercial aircraft out of Africa.

The Challenger, which was already in the region (although the government couldn’t immediately explain why), travelled from Senegal, to Morocco and on to Tunisia, at a cost of $40,741.

— Leona Aglukkaq, the former health minister who now serves in the environment portfolio, travelled on a Challenger to Greenland with a handful of officials in May 2011 for a meeting of the Arctic Council, at a cost of $35,150.

The Nunavut MP also took a jet in January 2013 for a same-day trip to Iqaluit for “departmental” business, costing taxpayers $20,539.

By The Numbers (Federal government travel on the VIP Challenger jets between April 2011 and February 2014):

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